1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to telecommunications systems. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and method for determining country-specific emergency telephone numbers.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is becoming increasingly common for individuals to travel with their telephony devices to foreign countries so that they are in contact with, for example, the main office at all times. Such telephony devices include, for example, cellular telephones and mobile computing devices such as laptop computers equipped with telephony “soft clients.”
Such laptop computers typically include microphones and speakers and software that implements “voice over IP” or “voice over Internet” functionality. The laptop computers connect to the Internet via, for example, a wireless Internet hot spot (e.g., a Wi-Fi access point implementing one of the IEEE 802.11x standards) and are provided telephone functionality based on, for example, the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) or the H.323 Recommendation.
For travelers, rapid handling of security and medical emergencies is advantageous. Various countries implement a common emergency number for police and medical emergencies. In the United States, the number is “911.” Other countries, however, implement their own emergency telephone numbers, which may not be known to the casual or occasional business traveler. As such, there is a need for such travelers to be able to informed of and access such numbers.